


Attention To Detail

by unrealityshift



Series: Merged Hearts AU [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, Gen, M/M, Merged Hearts AU, Possession, Post-Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 11:14:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8487190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unrealityshift/pseuds/unrealityshift
Summary: Sora hasn't always been the most observant person, especially when it comes to the big picture. But he's got a keen eye for details. 
Details like his best friend not being his best friend. 
(Merged Hearts AU-verse)





	

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so this is part of my Merged Hearts AU that I talked about on my tumblr. I also haven't written anything substantial in two to three years so. I think this was a good warm up for writing and a good starting point for the au
> 
> also my headcanons are blatantly obvious in this, haha (like Sora having ADHD)

Sora wasn't the most observant person--at least, according to his friends he wasn't. He seemed to be keenly unaware of things that were right in front of him, incredibly managing to miss the bigger picture when it was staring him down in favour of seeing the small details. Those same small details that no one ever seemed to notice, and that frustrated the keyblade wielder to no end. Details like the way Kairi's hair shimmered like blood when bathed in the island's sunset. The longing sorrow in Goofy's eyes when he gave Sora a particularly fatherly piece of advice. The tension constantly present in the brows and smiles of his island friends' faces when he returned two years later, unsure of the boy that had come back to them. The stutter of a heartbeat in his chest that wasn't exactly his, yet at the same time was--like the fluttering of a bird's wings against a cage. The catch in his best friend's breath in brief moments of darkness, reaching out for Sora's grounding presence as if it were the only thing anchoring him to the present at times.

Details like Riku's constant presence in the worlds he traveled to on his second--no, third, third--adventure (though the second one was mostly lost to a fog of a year's worth sleep, a haze that never seemed to fully clear even after his return from the fight with Xemnas in the vast space of nothingness). His stance in a body to big for him, Soul Eater poised for battle, haltingly graceful movements unaccustomed to a hulking form; he'd known all along it was Riku, deep in the crevices of his heart, from little details such as these, but his mind had refused to slot the pieces together into something whole, only seeming to come together when everything else was shut out and amplified by Kairi's warm light honing things into sharp relief.

Sora wasn't one for the big picture, but a guy keen on the details of the world. Well, worlds. Things typically unnoticed by anyone else were observed under Sora's bright eyes. It was the way his brain was, and had always been, wired; this, he knew for a fact. Hyperfocusing on little things to the point of missing alarm bells shrieking in front of him was what he did best. It had shown since he was a child--wild, energetic, and unruly; deep ocean blues scrutinizing every little thing passing him by, heart an open door.

Sora wasn't the most observant person--at least, if you asked anyone that wasn't him; people that saw his easily distracted nature as a liability and his seeming inability to put two and two together as a flaw holding him back.

But Sora, keen on the little things, knew that the person whose pale hand he had clutched tightly in his own was not his best friend. Though in flesh, nothing was unchanged, it was what lurked beneath that raises Sora's hackles. A darkness that Riku had said he'd taken into his own heart, an entity that kept haunting the newly named keyblade master like a ghost; a being that Sora had thought Riku had finally conquered and made his own within the depths of his heart. Sora didn't have his best friend's keen sense of smell, nor did he have Kairi's bright, blinding light that made any dark presence stick out like a sore thumb.

No, Sora had neither of these. Sora had but his heart--a powerful little thing, it was--and the innate ability to pick out seemingly insignificant details.

The empty dullness of his partner's eyes. Strong angles made sharp and almost harsh by expressions worn years ago, long since forgotten and foreign. A body that flinched away from tanned fingers, as if the touch burned, much like diving headlong into flames. Hands that gripped too tight, too stiff for someone so comfortable in his affection, lips slack beneath his own for a beat too long. Movements made unnatural, reminiscent of watching horror movies with his two closest friends and seeing demons move with bodies foreign and skin too tight, lacking natural grace and fluidity.

Sora hadn't forgotten the demon that had once lived under his best friend's skin, darkness sinking into his bones and leaving a stench that never quite went away, no matter how hard Riku scrubbed his skin and bathed in Sora's light, no matter how long Riku walked the road to dawn he carved out for himself. Sharp in the back of his mind was the memory of Riku--no, a monster, the monster, wearing his best friend's body like a coat--drenched in the eerie glow of Hollow Bastion's keyhole, bitter and acidic taste of darkness lingering on the back of his tongue, metallic clang of keyblades echoing in his ears.

This was not the boy he loved walking alongside him, hand in hand. Sora is 14 years old again, standing opposite to a fragment of a bodysnatcher that transcended time and space itself, cold sweat beading on the back of his neck, metal of his necklace sticky against his skin, keyblade heavy in gloved palms. Sora is 16, holding hands with the stain Riku never seemed to be able to wash out, the heady, almost sulfuric stench of darkness burning his nostrils. The scar tissue gnarled over his heart throbs.

"Sora."

His voice is his, and not his. Anyone else would think it was Riku. Sora knows better.

"Mm?" He plays along. He's not too bright, after all.

"Let's spar on the other island. For old time's sake." A glint in his eyes that is probably meant to look playful feels sinister. Sora's skin crawls. He hides everything beneath a sunshine smile, unrestrained thanks to the new lack of metal in his mouth, a heartwarming kind of smile.

A smile that can convince anyone that everything is completely alright.

Especially demons that lack his keen attention to detail.

"You're on!"


End file.
